- Rodzali Daud says MH370 was not spotted 350 miles off course
- Vietnam scales down air search until there is more information
- Furious families accuse Malaysia Airlines officials of lying
- Nine new reports of noise and light in sky near Thai border
The hunt for missing flight MH370 plunged into chaos today after a military chief denied radar had detected the jet 350 miles off course.
General Rodzali Daud, the head of Malaysia’s air force, claimed he did not say that the Malaysia Airlines flight had last been spotted over the Malacca Strait, off the west coast.
This would have put the Boeing jet an hour away from its last contact with air traffic control and far from its flight path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. There were also suggestions that someone in the cockpit had turned off the tracking device.
map of missing jet
Confusion: A Vietnamese Air Force seaplane sits on the tarmac of the airport on the southern island of Phu Quoc after Vietnam said it had suspended its air search for missing flight MH370
DID THE PILOT COMMIT SUICIDE?
Authorities are investigating the possibility that the pilot of the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370 committed suicide, the director of the CIA has revealed.
John Brennan (below), head of the US Central Intelligence
Agency, said: 'I think you cannot discount any theory', when asked if it was possible the pilot deliberately crashed the Boeing 777.
The theory could offer an explanation as to how the plane 'disappeared' from civilian radar tracking its movements, as the pilot could have switched off the transponder shortly before it vanished.
John Brennan
The CIA chief’s intervention came as Malaysian police say they are carrying out psychological profiles of everyone on board the plane, which vanished on Saturday carrying 239 people after taking off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing.
He told reporters there were a host of unanswered questions, including why the plane's transponder stopped emitting signals and what was the role of passengers carrying stolen passports.
'There are a number of very curious anomalies about all of this,’ he said.
‘You know, did it turn around? You know, were the individuals with these stolen passports in any way involved?'
He added: 'What about the transponder? Why did it sort of, you know, just disappear from the radar?
'We are looking at it very carefully. Clearly this is still a mystery.’
'I did not make any such statements', General Daud said but added that the plane turning back 'had not been ruled out'.
On a day of confusion, Vietnam briefly scaled back the search off the southern coast, saying it was receiving scanty and confusing information from Malaysia.
Hanoi later said the hunt - now in its fifth day - was back on in full force and was even extending on to land. China also said its air force would sweep land areas, although it did not specify where.
The confusion over where to look is adding to one of the most baffling mysteries in modern aviation mystery, and prolonging the agonising wait for hundreds of relatives of the missing.
In Beijing, there was fury from families of the 239 people on board, who are desperate for any news. Relatives hurled water bottles at airline officials and accused them of lying.
There were also nine fresh reports of aircraft 'noise and lights' being seen in the north-east, near the border with Thailand.
The new claims follow two earlier statements by a businessman and a fisherman that they had seen an aircraft's lights low in the sky before they disappeared.
Deputy police commander Dak Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman said the eyewitnesses had reported that they saw an aircraft - possibly the missing jet - heading north at about the time all civilian tracking data was lost with flight MH370 in the early hours of last Saturday.
The reports, from several towns and villages in the north east, said the aircraft was seen low over the sea. The towns included Kuala Besar, Pentai Cahaya Bulan, Pentai Senok and Penarik.
'Based on the reports, the plane, the plane was sighted between 1.30am and 1.45am,' said commander Jalaluddin.
'A bus driver, who gave his voluntary statement on Sunday, said he saw a low-flying plane at Penarik at about 1.45am the same day flight MH370 went missing.
'The driver was sure that he saw the aircraft's blinking beacon lights.'
From the Marang area, said the commander, eight villagers lodged police reports claiming they had heard a loud noise on Saturday night coming from the direction of Pulau Kapas.
One of the villagers, Alias Salleh, 36, told The Star newspaper that he and some friends were on a bench about 400m from the Marang beach at 1.20am when they heard a loud and frightening noise which sounded like the fan of a jet engine.
'The loud and frightening noise came from the north east of Pulau Kapas,' said Mr Alias.
'We looked around the Rhu Muda beach but did not see anything unusual.'
Endless wait: Distraught relatives of Chinese passengers who were on the plane leave a press conference yesterday
No news: Other sit and wait in quiet despair in a Beijing hotel room set aside for relatives or friends of passengers aboard the missing airplane
The massive search operation involving ships and aircraft from 10 countries is spread out over the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, which lie between Malaysia and Vietnam, and in the Strait of Malacca into the Andaman Sea.
China's civil aviation chief said its air force would add two planes to the search effort, which would be broadened to include land areas. He did not elaborate.
The Indian Express said India, which controls the Andaman and Nicobar island chains and has a strong naval presence in the Andaman Sea, had been asked to help, but a defence ministry source said there had been no formal request from Malaysia.
'They have to tell us the area where our people have to go, only then they move to that area,' the source said. 'It has to be clear, the clarity is not there at the moment.'
A senior military officer who had been briefed on the investigation told Reuters on Tuesday that the aircraft had made a detour to the west after communications with civilian authorities ended.
In the absence of any concrete evidence to explain the plane's disappearance, authorities have not ruled out anything. Police have said they were investigating whether any passengers or crew on the plane had personal or psychological problems that might shed light on the mystery, along with the possibility of a hijacking, sabotage or mechanical failure.
Disbelief: A tourist from Vietnam ties a message expressing hope for family onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight in Kuala Lumpur
Open sea: An officer aboard a Vietnamese military helicopter searches for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370
The airline said it was taking seriously a report by a South African woman who said the co-pilot of the missing plane had invited her and a female travelling companion to sit in the cockpit during a flight two years ago, in an apparent breach of security.
'Malaysia Airlines has become aware of the allegations being made against First Officer Fariq Ab Hamid which we take very seriously. We are shocked by these allegations. We have not been able to confirm the validity of the pictures and videos of the alleged incident,' the airline said in a statement.
The woman, Jonti Roos, said in an interview with Australia's Channel Nine TV that she and her friend were invited to fly in the cockpit by Fariq and the pilot between Phuket, Thailand, and Kuala Lumpur in December 2011. The TV channel showed pictures of the four apparently in a plane's cockpit.
The Boeing 777 has one of the best safety records of any commercial aircraft in service. Its only previous fatal crash came on July 6 last year when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 struck a seawall on landing in San Francisco, killing three people.
U.S. planemaker Boeing has declined to comment beyond a brief statement saying it was monitoring the situation.
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